ORC 2019

I think it is more based of insurance but not positive.  The southern border is quite productive and popular.   

If safety is the main concern, and with the ORC often being the first salt experience for several entrants, it should be, I think the discussion about boundaries should not be held until the current & wind strengths and directions are better known. Rabbit Rock can be an arduous paddle with a south wind and northerly current. On the other hand, Whale Cove was definitely beyond a safe destination a couple of years ago on tournament day when we had a 15 knot wind from the NW by noon.

Is the boundary restriction based off distance from the hole, square miles, or something totally different? Just eyeballing the photo it seems like the boundary is quite a ways west of the reef. Would bringing that boundary inward make more room to go north? It doesn’t make since to take away from the southern boundary so people could potentially travel even farther from launch in another direction. Not that it wouldn’t be totally awesome for the north boundary to go all the way to Rabbit Rock. Just curious what the thought behind that is.

Imo, the reef off GP is better fishing than the one just north of Whale Cove. I gets better south of WC, but that's getting pretty far from the DB launch.

What about an secondary launch point from Fogarty Beach, which would take some traffic pressure off DB boat launch & the red zone? Launch from Fogarty, return Depoe Bay.

We try to keep the boundary reasonable for insurance and our own sanity.   If the organizers are nervous about the boundaries being to large, it's hard to write an honest insurance application. 

Regarding a second launch at Fogarty.  We're looking into it, but that requires more planning and logistics.  I personally would like it to happen if we move the boundaries north.

If there's a possibility of launching at Fogarty I'm for it.
That being said I want to recover there too.
I don't need the hassle of my rig being one place and me another.

If safety is the main concern, and with the ORC often being the first salt experience for several entrants, it should be, I think the discussion about boundaries should not be held until the current & wind strengths and directions are better known. Rabbit Rock can be an arduous paddle with a south wind and northerly current. On the other hand, Whale Cove was definitely beyond a safe destination a couple of years ago on tournament day when we had a 15 knot wind from the NW by noon.

I was about to say the same thing.  We don't know which way the current is moving or how fast until the day of.  If the majority of the fishing grounds are downstream of the launch, we all have to go with the current in the morning and then fight it coming back possibly creating an issue for the least in shape or experienced. 

I'm all for reasonable boundaries, but think waiting to set them until we can make a reasonable guess which way the wind may blow or the current flow that day might not be the best choice for planning purposes. At risk of over-stating the obvious, a certain amount of situational awareness should come to play when deciding where to fish. If there are more adverse conditions in one direction, I'll go the other. A launch & return to Fogarty is okay with me, but may require 2 check in stations. Are we going to have private PB support? Might be worth some serious consideration for a few reasons.

What wind/tide situation makes launching at Fogarty preferable?  I've always wanted to try it.

Is parking there generally safe?  I drove down there once just to check it out.

Dave

Low tides are ideal, as the exposed offshore reefs will absorb the waves and there's no surf on the beach. On high tides with a decent swell, there will be a single line of breakers along the beach. Landing at high tide can get tricky because it's a very steep beach: you can be 20 feet offshore and the water's 10 feet deep. Gotta be real quick with the landing.

As for the parking, I've heard of issues with break-ins here before. I've seen some sketchy-looking vehicles pull down into the lot, slowly circle around, then leave...almost like they were scoping out the parked vehicles. I haven't had any trouble there myself, but I feel much more comfortable leaving my rig in the Depoe Bay lot than I do at Fogarty.

If launching at Fogarty becomes an option, that is most definitely where I would launch from. Lots of good fishing between there and Depo. The wind and swell is typically going to be coming from the north that time of year. To put in up at Fogarty and pull out at Depo would maximize time spent fishing rather than peddling all the way to the north boundary from Depo.
Now we’re diggin where there’s taters!

A second check-in station at Fogarty with a line of site to the parking lot could help alleviate potential break-ins.   

Yaquina bar:
Day            Tide    Time        Height   Sunrise
Sat. 13th    Low   4:52 AM    -0.4      5:44 AM

Got the prize kayak for the tournament down and unwrapped it to take some photos yesterday, so for those of you who are wondering what might be on the table:

*digging around frantically*
Good lord, where the hell did I put my sunglasses!?!?

 

Is there a brief rundown of the rules? Are tandems allowed? I assume if I have a Hobie Island I would need to leave my sail at home?   Also, how is trailer parking at Depoe typically?

We were hoping to get a second kayak shop involved, but that is going to have to wait until next year.  That means we don't have the enough workers to run a second check-in/check-out  at Fogarty Creek this year.   

As for rules... we're having a meeting tonight to finalize those and will post them soon. 
Single biggest fish.
Tandems are okay. 
Keep the sails and motors at home. 
There is plenty of trailer parking at Depoe Bay, but we do have to compete for spaces with power boats.   At least it's not an all depths halibut day and still early for tuna.  If you do have a trailer.. please try and coordinate with some others and pack as many kayaks on it as you can.

Is the Compass going to be the winners prize or a raffle prize?

So I really like my OK Trident 4.3, but I would be ok with winning that compass!